God

God is perfect and infinite in every way: infinitely powerful, infinitely loving, infinitely knowing, eternal, and present everywhere. God is one in being, nature, will, and essence, and eternally exists in three co-equal, co-eternal persons known as the Holy Trinity: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Son is eternally begotten of the Father, and the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. God is the creator of all things seen and unseen.

Jesus Christ

Jesus Christ is the second person of the Trinity who incarnated into the created world, assuming a fully human nature. Jesus has two natures: a fully human nature, and shares the divine nature with the Father and the Holy Spirit. The two natures are united in the person of Jesus Christ, without mixing but without separation, and there is no communication of attributes between the two natures. Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit, and born of the Virgin Mary, who is the blessed Mother of God. Jesus, being the perfect human and second Adam, lived a perfectly sinless life, earning eternal life for those who are dead in Adam’s sin. Jesus died on the cross and rose physically and bodily from the dead on the third day. He ascended into heaven and reigns over His Kingdom until He will come to judge the living and the dead and redeem all creation. Jesus holds all of creation together and His resurrection will bring with it the resurrection of all creation.

Sin

Adam, as the federal head of all humanity who all people have a real spiritual union with, sinned and so we all sinned in him, earning everlasting death. Because of Adam’s sin, not only people, but also the physical creation is subject to death and decay. All people are born with original sin from the moment of conception, and nobody deserves anything by their own merit except death and eternal punishment. This original sin is lived out in the particular sins committed daily.

Salvation

Since Christ is the resurrection and the life, we need to be united to him to obtain forgiveness of sins and participate in His eternal life. We are justified before God by faith alone in Christ, and our union with Christ sanctifies us as we participate in His life. Good works are a necessary part of the Christian life, but they do not in and of themselves justify us before God. When we have faith in Christ, His righteousness is imputed to us so God judges us according to Christ’s works, not our own.

Predestination

There is a general sense in which God ordains whatever event comes to pass, down to the subatomic quantum level. This is called providence, where God is the author of the book of the history of our universe. God determines the events of our universe by both natural and supernatural means. Free-will in an earthly sense can be compatible with God’s providence. However, there is a particular sense in which God has chosen from all eternity who would be saved and who would not be, and there is no free-will in terms of salvation. However, those condemned are only condemned because of their unbelief, not because of predestination. Because of original sin, our wills are enslaved to sin, and we cannot choose to believe in Christ unless God regenerates, or re-orients, our hearts. So only those predestined, or “elect” will be saved. However, we have no way of knowing who is elect and who is not, so as far as we are concerned, the elect is simply whoever is in Christ since Christ is the elect.

The Bible

The Bible is the Word of God in the words of man. Jesus is the Word of God, because He is the union of God and man, being fully human and fully divine. So the Bible, which is the Word of God because it tells us about Jesus, is a fully human text and a fully divine text. Every part of the Bible is the Word of God and therefore an infallible authority. The Bible was also written over many periods of history, in many cultures, and by many individuals, who were not simply dictating what God told them to write. By His providence, God used truly human writings to communicate exactly what He determined to reveal to His people. The Bible is the special revelation by which we encounter Jesus.

The Covenant

The whole Bible is the unfolding of God’s overarching Covenant of Grace. All the Covenants the Bible speaks of, the Covenants with Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, and the New Covenant, are building blocks of one overarching Covenant. In each Covenant, God promises something. God’s promises are never abrogated, but they are built upon as history unfolds. All of God’s promises are eventually summed up in Christ. Therefore, the way that God has related to His people has always been the same in essence, only different in outward administration. Parallels to this Covenant of Grace is the Covenant of Works, which is not explicitly mentioned in the Bible, but is how theologians refer to the conditional promise God made to Adam, and thus to all humanity, promising life if he obeyed and death if he did not. Humanity failing the Covenant of Works shows the need for the Covenant of Grace. Works are required to fulfill the Covenant of Works, but faith is all that is required to fulfill the Covenant of Grace. Christ fulfills the Covenant of Works on behalf of His people, so the Covenant of Grace unites His people to Him by faith. There is also the Covenant of Redemption, made between the three members of the Trinity about who specifically to redeem. The Father elects a certain group of people, the Son dies for those people, and the Holy Spirit applies salvation to those people. The Covenant of Redemption is the groundwork for the other two Covenants.

The Church

The visible Church consists of all that are outwardly part of the “covenant” which, in the New Testament is by baptism and in the Old Testament was by circumcision. The invisible Church consists of all who are elect from all time. The Church is a people, but it is also an institution with history and rituals. The Church as an organization is a secondary authority subservient to the Bible. The Church is never infallible, but still God has ordained it as an authority for Christians and the place where we receive the means of grace (the word and the sacraments)

The Sacraments

A sacrament is a covenant sign that is united to what it signifies. Every sacrament is a union of the sign and the thing signified. Baptism is the sign of entrance into the New Covenant which symbolizes the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, but for those who trust in the Covenant promises, Baptism actually gives what it signifies. The Lord’s Supper symbolizes Jesus’s body and blood, but for those who receive it in faith, they spiritually, but really, eat Jesus’s body and drink His blood. The outward signs are not necessary for salvation, but the things they signify are, and the things signified are united to signs, so the signs are never to be neglected. The local church must administer the sacraments to be a true Church.

Nature and creation

In nature, God reveals general truths about the world to all humanity, whether Christian or not. By general revelation, or natural revelation, all people can do science, learn mathematical facts, perceive goodness, truth, and beauty, and have a general sense of right and wrong. By general revelation, all people can know that God exists. However, only by special revelation can people know about Jesus and be saved. The purpose of general revelation is to teach us about our world and the purpose of special revelation is to teach us about Christ. The two are not to be confused. Therefore, Christians are to follow the findings of the natural sciences wherever they lead. Since God is sovereign over all things natural and supernatural, it is right to say that God created everything that exists, and this is compatible with the affirmation that all life developed naturally over billions of years by the processes of evolution by random mutations and natural selection. The purpose of Genesis 1-2 was to provide a simplified account of who created the world and why, to refute the mythologies of other nations who were worshipping things created by God rather than God Himself. It is meant to tell us who created the world and why it was created, not to tell us how or when. Thus it is by natural revelation, not special revelation, that we learn about how and when the earth was created.

The second coming

Jesus will come again at an unknown time to redeem our physical creation and judge the living and the dead. The elect will be raised unto eternal life, and everyone else, to eternal death. The creation will purged of all that is not good, including death, and will be cosmically restored for all eternity. All good things of this world will be present and redeemed in the new creation and brought to their fullness. We will live in the new creation with Christ as our King forever and ever.